i8yo.] HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 173 



ter, that notwithstanding the short duration of the flowers, no really- 

 good collection of hardy perennial plants can be considered complete 

 without a few of them in its ranks, and only a few of the best are here 

 selected. As a rule, all the Papaveraceae luxuriate best in light rich 

 gritty loam ; but the soil should be well drained whatever its texture 

 or components may be. Propagation is effected by division in spring 

 or by seeds. The latter method, in the majority of cases, is the best, 

 because, owing to the thick fleshy rootstock which most of the larger 

 growing Poppy- worts form, division is not always a safe or successful pro- 

 cess. Sow the seeds in March, in small pots, in a cold frame or in slight 

 heat. Only two or three seeds may be sown in each pot. It is char- 

 acteristic of the order generally that the plants at first make only a tap- 

 root, which, when broken — and it is not easily avoided in the process 

 of pricking off, should it be necessary to resort to it — does not readily 

 emit fibres or repair itself ; it is better, therefore, to sow very thinly in 

 small pots, and afterwards to thin away the weaker plants, leaving only 

 one or two of the strongest to occupy the pot, and be potted on if 

 necessary, before finally turning it out into the place it is to occupy in 

 the open ground. 



Argemone, Prickly Poppy. — This is a genus of few species, the 

 greater number of which are either annual or biennial plants, and fur- 

 nishing, so far as I know, only one perennial worthy of cultivation. 



A. grandiflora, Great-flowered Prickly Poppy. — This species grows 

 from 2 feet to 3 feet high in bold, somewhat coarse, but rounded habit, 

 producing large, smooth, wavy leaves, toothed, and in form like some 

 of the familiar Thistles, the teeth being furnished with bristling spine- 

 like hairs. The flowers are large, pure white, in numerous flowered 

 panicles ; flowers in July and August ; native of Mexico. It is best 

 adapted for culture in the back lines of warm, sheltered borders, or 

 among shrubs in beds or borders. 



Chelidonium, Celandine. — This is one of the most free and con- 

 tinuous-flowering genera in the order. It is not of the most showy 

 description, but is always interesting and pretty. It succeeds best in 

 partial shade, and is useful for introducing into open woods and natu- 

 ralising on shady banks where the Vegetation is not of too encroaching 

 a nature. Propagate by seeds in the open ground, in March, the 

 double form by division in spring, or both by the latter means. 



C. majus, Larger Celandine. — It is not so much for the species in 

 its normal form that this plant is selected, as for two varieties of it of 

 more value than itself, floriculturally speaking. The one is C. M. 

 flore pleno, a double-flowered variety, differing only from the simple 

 form of the species in that particular. It grows about 18 inches high, 

 in soft rounded outline, producing pale-green pinnately divided leaves. 



